blockchain is synced but eth.getBalance still returns 0

I did not know about web wallets when I originally started to mine (using pool) so I've been mining to an address for a wallet I made locally. Problem is the blockchain was not synced at that point so think the money went nowhere. I figured that maybe once it's synced it would work. But it still shows a balance of zero. Do I have any chance of getting that ether or is it gone? I may have to cut my losses and just get a web wallet and then mine to that.